Replacing an old PRS-T1

[Spycrowsoft]

Hi all!

I have an old and battered pink Sony PRS-T1 which was gifted to me in 2012 by a family member who bought it, but regretted their purchase because it turned out that e-readers are not for them.

I already had a considerable library of e-books and comics at that point in time, which has only grown since and is now approaching the 3000 books/comics and 100 GB mark.

So far I've been content with my PRS-T1 and I've been able to squish my entire library down to something just below 29 GB by having Calibre scale all images down and making them monochrome, but the end of what I can accomplish with that method is in sight and I'd really like to be able to carry the entire contents of my amassed library with me without having to swap books out.

So I've recently started looking at replacement options and discovered that there has been some progress in this space, but apart from colored e-ink displays, nothing too groundbreaking that would warrant replacing the PSR-T1 as it currently stands.

So I wanted to ask you all:
- What is your experience with colored e-ink displays?
- Do you know of any, or do you have any suggestions for e-readers which support SDXC memory-cards (larger than 32 GB), preferably with a colored e-ink display?

P.S. I've tried using tablets and smartphones as a replacement, but I've discovered that those are not for me. They are too small and/or there's too much light coming from those screens for me to read comfortably compared to e-ink by day and with a small single-led reading light at night.

P.P.S. I've been looking at the pocketbook readers with colored displays, but there are no physical shops nearby where I can test those out. I am aware that it might be possible to to format an SDXC card as FAT32 with off-spec sector sizes and that most linux-based OSes will actually read those cards just fine. However it could also be that there is a hardware limitation in the reader chip, which really caps the maximum card size at 32 GB, no matter what tricks you apply.

I figured this forum might be the best place to ask.

[DNSB]

I'm using a 128GB µSD card in a Kobo Clara HD and so far so good.

As for the eInk colour displays, I haven't seen that many and so far, the colour has been meh at best. The next generation with the ACeP displays should have better colour but the speed penalty is severe.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The next generation with the ACeP displays should have better colour but the speed penalty is severe.

A pity. Personally I don't read comics or manga and so speed is vastly more important to me than color display. But I do wonder why they can't still get it right after more than 15 years of eink.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

A pity. Personally I don't read comics or manga and so speed is vastly more important to me than color display. But I do wonder why they can't still get it right after more than 15 years of eink.

Because it's difficult and no one knows how to do it yet? (And it is possible it might never be any good.)

[Spycrowsoft]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I'm using a 128GB µSD card in a Kobo Clara HD and so far so good.

As for the eInk colour displays, I haven't seen that many and so far, the colour has been meh at best. The next generation with the ACeP displays should have better colour but the speed penalty is severe.

Is that uSD formatted as off-spec FAT32 or EXFAT?

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Because it's difficult and no one knows how to do it yet? (And it is possible it might never be any good.)

It's because of this.

However: most real printed media also uses a very limited number of colors on usually a 150 or 300 DPI dot matrix.

The E-Ink displays on the latest pocketbooks currently have a resolution of 100 DPI in color, so the technology is not quite there yet, but approaching the quality of most print media.

[Ghitulescu]

I might be wrong, but I see the market for standalones shrinking.
Like the smartphone drove out the photocamera, it will also make the ereader obsolete.

The biggest issue with T1/T2/T3 (I have them all) is the lack of backlight for lowlight conditions.

So, get adapted to tablets. Ereaders will disappear.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Ghitulescu

So, get adapted to tablets. Ereaders will disappear.

Even if true, it's not happening today, or this year or even next. And an eink reader bought now probably has close to ten years in it, with any luck at all (and noting that the PRS-T1 you name is over that). So why give up one's preferred means and adapt now, for something that's way out in the future and uncertain? And who knows what the story with tablets will be by then, anyway?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Spycrowsoft

However: most real printed media also uses a very limited number of colors on usually a 150 or 300 DPI dot matrix.

It's far more complicated than that unless you are thinking of 1930s budget colour on wood pulp. The image is about 150 dpi to 300 dpi, but the dots to print the shades of C Y M & blacK are much higher resolution. For example if a 600 dpi colour laser is doing halftone is about 100 lpi. Colour lasers and basic inkjets use the CYMK system.
Books with colour use more inks and higher resolution dots.

Even cheap newsprint at only 85 lines per inch is effectively higher resolution than many tablet LCD and eInk colour because of how the half-toning system works
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone

RGB is very problematic for eInk (colour addition) because it inherently has only about 4000 tones and lowers the resolution. It's like LCD, in that it uses a colour filter on a monochrome panel. But an LCD can do more than 260 shades of grey and do it over 100 faster per pixel than eink. The mono eink is basically white or black per cell and using clever tricks to get about 14 shades of grey (which is slower).

The inverse colour subtraction (CYM) uses layers of pigment and works somewhat differently (aecp aka Gallery 3), so is very slow (1.5 second refresh). It's brighter and/or more saturated but still poorer than decent paper print, LCD and OLED. An as yet not invented CYMK technology of bistable display with eink properties is needed.

Don't hold your breath for a decent colour eink. We once thought Mirasol was the answer (10+ years ago) and while possibly better than RGB filters on mono eink, proved to be poorer than claimed. One ereader (two brands) was made for the Chinese market and sank without trace.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Ghitulescu

I might be wrong, but I see the market for standalones shrinking.
Like the smartphone drove out the photocamera, it will also make the ereader obsolete.

The biggest issue with T1/T2/T3 (I have them all) is the lack of backlight for lowlight conditions.

So, get adapted to tablets. Ereaders will disappear.

They said that 10 years ago, too. So far it has not happened.

And dedicated cameras have not disappeared. They're still there for people who want one, because they do a better job than smartphones. So do dedicated ereaders. I don't think they will disappear.

[ps67]

I own a Pocketbook Color and an Inkpad Color precisely because I was intrigued by color. The device are quite slow but you can install Koreader which is faster, has several important features that the standard reader lacks such as font sharpness, and has been supporting colors for a few months. Inkpad Color has a 7.8" screen.
But even 7.8" can be few for comics, depending on the original format. Furthermore, I do not recommend it for art books or books with important photographs. It is useful when there are colored images such as diagrams and the like. Or if photos are not so important: I read a history of philosophy with titles in red and some photos or portraits of philosophers in color, for example. The resolution is 300 PPI for black and white and 100 PPI for colors. You can wait if you want the first ones reviews of the new Pocketbook Viva when it comes out, which adopts ACeP technology: for now I don't think there is a precise date yet.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by ps67

ACeP technology

Look.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Look.

Thank You, I didn't know.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

They said that 10 years ago, too. So far it has not happened.

And dedicated cameras have not disappeared. They're still there for people who want one, because they do a better job than smartphones. So do dedicated ereaders. I don't think they will disappear.

But cheap snapshot cameras are gone. The DSLRs though are a nice of a niche now that mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras are good, but will survive while the OLED viewfinder is less resolution than the image.

Dedicated ereaders is a niche, but it's not going away.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ps67

You can wait if you want the first ones reviews of the new Pocketbook Viva when it comes out, which adopts ACeP technology: for now I don't think there is a precise date yet.

ACeP is a poster / advert technology. It's terrible for an ereader. 1.5 second page refresh time.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

But cheap snapshot cameras are gone.

Yes, because they're not needed anymore - smartphones are fully as good in every aspect. OTOH, tablets certainly aren't as good as dedicated ereaders in several aspects - display and weight being the two most important ones. I guess ereaders may disappear once we have tablets as lightweight and with the similar eye-friendly display, but then it would no longer matter. As long as dedicated ereaders still have some advantages, they won't disappear.